Community and social computing

I've just filled out my developerWorks Expert space for the first time today. I haven't really added all the feeds and other things I really want to add in but you can be sure I'll be adding more over time. Right now now it is a little self-centered, since that was easiest for me to find. I'll probably move my links and tags to the space rather than push too much into a particular application like this blog.

The point of an expert space is really to focus on a particular individual and the multiple things they may be working on, or the multiple social tools they may be using. This differs from a group space in that it is not shared with others and you don't have to negotiate or discuss what you want to put onto the space (as long as it doesn't break the T's and C's). A group space really is intended to focus on a group activity with several folks who will be active participants in the topic. Think of it this way: in an expert space, YOU are the product. :)

I keep running into Chris Anderson's activities lately. First, I'm listening to his dW podcast interview on our site this week, and next we had an internal meeting for book authors that Chris came to talk to us about. The main discussion in the call was more about how to approach book writing and some ideas that he found successful for his own bestseller, The Long Tail (see my book list). Some of it rang so true but is still missed by so many authors.

For one, he talked about blogging from the very beginning on the book as he did on his research, and carrying the conversation on regularly and for a long time. Chris started blogging from the beginning. It helped in shape his ideas, but also helped quite a bit when it came time to launch the book; he gave away a thousand copies of the book to all the bloggers who interacted with him on his blog. This, I think, really helped to spread the popularity of his book.

Blogging is certainly popular but to many book authors it is still a new phenomenon, even in the tech industry. With that in mind, many authors think that they should start blogging when their book is nearer completion that from the beginning. I think there are two parts to this: a) in general, for a blog to become even barely known takes a long-time of ongoing and active effort; b) blogging about your book helps to build awareness. In other words, if you already have (a) going for you, then (b) should be easier. However, back to my point on blogging still being new with many authors points to the fact that many of them don't even have (a) going for them.

To give my example, I am working on a book and many of the ideas that I have talked about are spread all around this blog of mine. However, I don't think I ever stated that intention. For me, the ideas are more significant--and even more than that discussion of the ideas--than the point that its for a book. But perhaps I should state that intention right away and define the premise more openly. I'll save it for a different post so as not to distract from Chris' point here.

Another interesting point and one that is dear to his heart apparently--he just launched a new startup BookTour.com on it--is about authors engaging others in live events, book tours, presentations, speaking engagements, etc. I think it's a great idea and fits my philosophy: most people need help on learning how to generate a community around an idea or even themselves. What live or virtual appearances and activities do is help to build that community and reinforce the significance of the work. By Chris' own admission speaking engagements can have a better ROI than book sales, even if they go hand in hand; and I don't disagree with that in terms of getting paid for day-long appearnaces versus spending months on a book. This means that as an author you need to spend the time and effort to actively promote your book and not just rely on the publisher's marketing team. The argument I always hear on this is that most people have full time jobs and do not have the time to do so. This is where I think an idea like BookTour can come in really helpful.

Let's take an online parallel: we at developerWorks are about to launch a new aspect called Expert spaces amongst other features. This allows a person to create a community around their own activities using different social software tools not unlike what groups of folks are doing with our community topic spaces now. Like our spaces now, you can start a blog of your own to talk about your project, link in resources your find useful. If you want to go a step beyond, you could even write parts of your book in a wiki online and ellicit comments about the contents you share.

For our own team, this means that we will now need to help these experts get going on communicating in this new way. BookTour focuses on the specific activity of bookwriting; we have a much wider focus on building awareness about any technical expert. We do that now to some degree, but there is a lot more that we could learn.

RSDC 2007 is over and I have a few hours to kill, probably by the poolside. It's a little warm and humid compared to Tucson but not too bad.

At the conference close, I sat with Frank Schophuizen, along time Rational ClearCase and ClearQuest user who recently started a new dW space on Configuration Management, and was asking what he should do to promote awareness of his space. He just started but has already populated it with a lot of information.

Anyway, justa few minutes after asking, our GM, Jim Corgell, pointed out his space to the large audience as an example of the level of involvement our customers were participating on our site. Very serendipitous.

Sometimes it's things these things shared by a key person at a key moment that make a difference.

I would link to his space right now but it's not easy to blog from IE on a mobile phone...possible but not easy... maybe I should switch to twitter for this.

The new space for the Rational Software Development Conference 2007 is now live and full of details and links to podcasts, announcements, SecondLife activities, Rational Tube, highlights from the dW Rational Zone, blogs, and more. We'll be updating this space during the week of the conference itself as it progresses.

Okay so it's not a Dire Straits song yet, but it's why I now need to send back the Moto Q I just picked up two days ago. The current Q only has IE for mobiles and doesn't support AJAX quite right (if at all). I tried downloading the Opera 9 browser and installing that on the Windows Mobile 5 OS on the Q, but it also doesn't seem to be working right. I'll try playing with it a little longer to see if I can get it to work.

AJAX is becoming absolutely crucial for what we do with the site. A key feature of dW Spaces is that it has portlets which work through AJAX to pull and render content, and control the interface. We are planning for a lot more for Spaces and it still all points to needing an AJAX capable browser. There is a non-Javascript version of using Spaces too, but I prefer the AJAX version. Beyond just our own site, AJAX is gaining in popularity, and I wouldn't be surprised if it got up to the level of Flash or Laszlo someday.

So the Moto Q may have to go back while I wait for a version of the Moto Q q9 that runs on the CDMA network of Sprint's. Currently there's a GSM version called the q9h which will likely appear for GSM providers like AT&T/Cingular, etc. It also has a faster processor, a faster OS (Windows Mobile 6), a nicer 2Mpixel camera, and a micro-SD interface (rather than the harder-to-find-cards-for mini-SD interface). There are apparently some downsides like the loss of the scrollwheel, which I really like. There's a review on engadget and another on infoSync.

(source: engadget)

According to Motorola, the q9 is supposed to be released in this quarter (which ends in 3 weeks) but I have yet to see it for sale anywhere. Who knows when that CDMA version will appear, and I may be waiting for months. Who knows, perhaps Sprint will hold off for a WiMAX version of the q9, but that would mean a much longer wait for me. I'll keep my Moto Q for the next two weeks and see how it goes before my 30-day trial expires.

We launched our developerWorks Spaces project at the Web 2.0 Expo last week. The page has more information including a video and an interactive tour of what the project is all about, but in quick summary: with our spaces system, you now have the opportunity to create your own community microsite around a topic, project or other activity for developers that can bring together multiple social networking tools, any of the developerWorks articles or tutorial content, or any RSS feed from across the Internet. We provide an easy web-based tool for you to create the community topic space and publish it to share with everyone. Please visit the URL for the project to see how you can apply for your own space.

I will also share information about the project in a webcast this Wednesday on April 25th, 1-2pm Eastern Time. This 1 hour long joint webcast together with the Software as a Service (SaaS)team is available through the IBM PartnerWorld webcasts as Social Networking and Software as a Service. It's a free webcast but requires registration to use the tool to see the slide presentation, the demo, the Q&A, and polls.